“Chocolate Milk Beverage,” WTF?

Beatrice 1L Chocolate Milk Beverage

I love milk. It’s probably the only thing keeping me alive given my absurd diet, or lack thereof. When I’m eating out or if it’s on sale at the grocery store I’ll often treat myself to a nice tasty Chocolate Milk. I figure it’s the next best thing to white milk and way better than washing down a meal with sugar water pop.

I have noticed lately that Beatrice brand 1% Partly Skimmed Chocolate Milk is being replaced by ‘1% Chocolate Milk Beverage’ in packaging that looks almost identical on store shelves. As a connoisseur of Chocolate Milk I’m intrigued, and ready to take offence at what I find. Yes, messing with Chocolate Milk is offensive. And so the question must be asked, open-mindedly of course: What the fuck is Chocolate Milk Beverage?

My first assumption is that it obviously has so many chemicals in it that it can’t legally be called milk any more. My usual allies Wikipedia and Google have failed me in my quest to identify what it is, and where exactly the line is between milk and milk beverage. The websites of Beatrice and Parmalat (their parent company) also didn’t have the information I was looking for. Real chocolate milk is listed, but not their new concoction. What to do?? Without so much as a press release, it’s obvious they intended to do this quietly.

On November 10th, I decided to send Beatrice an e-mail via their website to get to the bottom of this.

Hello Beatrice,

I have noticed recently that your ‘1% Chocolate Milk’ is being replaced by ‘1% Chocolate Milk Beverage.’ Last week my local Metro store handily had your 1L ‘chocolate milk beverage’ beside the 2L ‘chocolate milk’ for comparison. I saw the long list of ingredients in the former and decided not to purchase. Today at Tim Horton’s, I received your ‘chocolate milk beverage’ in lieu of the ‘chocolate milk’ that I had ordered, and decided to write you to find out what the story is.

I have a few questions:
– What is ‘Chocolate Milk Beverage’?
– Why is it not called ‘Chocolate Milk’?
– Why is it being positioned as a replacement for ‘Chocolate Milk’ (e.g. same packaging) rather than an alternative?
– In this age of heightened awareness about what people eat and drink, is your company not concerned that substituting ‘chocolate milk beverage’ for actual ‘chocolate milk’ (a la Coke 2) will hurt sales?

Much appreciated.

I don’t expect anything more than a canned response, if that.

What really started this whole thing? Metro’s flyer this week pictured and described real chocolate milk. When I went to buy some, they’d clearly received skids of the other stuff in the two stores that I visited. I’m a little miffed.

I started getting a bit worked up about the whole thing while writing about it and decided to send an e-mail to Metro too. If I bother enough people, someone ought to respond, eh? The following was sent on November 11th.

Hello Metro,

I had a couple of questions about the 1L Beatrice Chocolate Milk that was prominently featured in this week’s flyer. I have noticed recently that Beatrice’s Chocolate Milk (as was pictured in the flyer) is being replaced by “Chocolate Milk Beverage” in your stores. I have noticed that these products contain different ingredients but have similar packaging. My questions to you:
– Was this change imposed by Beatrice upon Metro?
– Why was Chocolate Milk pictured and described in this week’s flyer when a substantial shipment of Chocolate Milk Beverage was sent instead to at least two of your Toronto-area stores?

Both stores I visited had some older stock of 2L Beatrice Chocolate Milk for easy comparison. After seeing the frighteningly long list of ingredients in this Chocolate Milk Beverage I decided not to purchase it, despite the attractive sale price.

I enjoy Chocolate Milk quite a bit, but I will not be purchasing Chocolate Milk Beverage. I would ask you to please pressure Beatrice to bring back it’s real Chocolate Milk, or switch suppliers to a company that still produces real Chocolate Milk, such as Sealtest.

I look forward to your response!

Metro sent me an automated acknowledgement with a commitment to respond within two business days.

While I wait for their responses, aren’t there some kind of laws that regulate truth in advertising? It just so happens that we have a little gem called the Competition Act. Part VII.1 Deceptive Marketing Practices discusses this at length. I’m no lawyer, but as far as I understand it there are a few relevant sections:

Misrepresentations to public

General impression to be considered

Representations accompanying products

It would, of course, be up to a court to decide if this particular misrepresentation was “false or misleading in a material respect.”

16-7-74 (a) shall be the product made from
(i) milk, milk powder, skim milk, skim milk powder, partly skimmed milk, evaporated milk, evaporated partly skimmed milk, evaporated skim milk or cream or any combination thereof,
(ii) a flavouring preparation, and
(iii) a sweetening agent;
16-8-78 (b) shall contain more than 0.3 per cent and less than 3.0 per cent milk fat;
(c) shall, notwithstanding sections D.01.009 and D.01.010, contain added vitamin A in such an amount that a reasonable daily intake of the milk contains not less than 1200 International Units and not more than 2500 International Units of vitamin A;
25-11-75 (d) shall contain added vitamin D in such an amount that a reasonable daily intake of the milk contains not less than 300 International Units and not more than 400 International Units of vitamin D;
12-9-84 (e) may contain salt, food colour, lactase, stabilizing agent and not more than 0.5 per cent starch; and
5-8-82 (f) may contain not more than 50,000 total aerobic bacteria per cubic centimetre, as determined by official method MFO-7, Microbiological Examination of Milk, November 30, 1981.

Interestingly this section says nothing about the milk content itself, only what’s allowed in it. I guess it would be too easy if it said something like “must contain 95% milk.” Unfortunately there is no mention of ‘milk beverages’ in that document, so I’ll have to assume that Beatrice’s Chocolate Milk Beverage simply fails one or more of the above criteria. Given the longer list of ingredients, I’m going to go with (e). I hope it’s not the bacteria thing… eww.

I’ll post an update when I get some sort of response from Beatrice and Metro. Their customer service departments have a chance to shine by responding promptly, with an informative, human response that actually answers my questions. Care to place bets?

In the meantime, watch out for substitutions like Chocolate Milk Beverage in place of the real thing.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 23:16 +0000 and is filed under food, rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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57 Responses to “Chocolate Milk Beverage,” WTF?

Sealtest has the same moniker added to their chocoloate milk now too. I was at Sobeys just today and I couldn’t find anything that didn’t say chocoloate milk “beverage”. I took down the ingredients: Partly skimmed milk, vitamin A palmitate and vitamin D3 added, modified milk ingredients, sugar, cocoa, colour, salt carrageenan, artificial flavour.

I looked up “carrageenan” and it is a food additive derived from certain type of seaweed. Wikipedia had this somewhat alarming sentence under its entry:

Gelatinous extracts of the Chondrus crispus seaweed have been used as food additives for hundreds of years,[1] though analysis of carrageenan safety as an additive continues.[2]

I live in Sault Ste. Marie ont. and opened a bag of 1% beatrice chocolate milk today. I took a big guzzle and to my surprise it was the worst experience of my life. The milk tasted like paint/chemicals. Today is Monday july 23rd 2012 and the milk has an expiration date of Aug 1st 2012. I have felt cramps and nautious all day. I have contacted beatrice/parmalot and they want to have purolator pick it up. I have also contacted Food Basics Trunk Road location in Sault Ste.Marie ont. and I have also contacted thr ministry of health. Has any one else had this happen.

I’m going through this exact same thign right now. I bought what I though was Chocolate milk only to do a dobule take when I poured it into a glass.

Starring at the dirty coloured dishwater in my glass, i thought the milk had gone bad. Then I noticed the word “Beverage” And things became clearer.

We phoned Parmalat only to eb told that “Consumers need to pay attention to what they buy.” To which i replied that the packaging is almost identical to chocolate milk which constitutes deceptive marketing. The customer service rep just said “WE’ll make a note of it.” So I followed up with an email and am still waiting a reply. I’m trying to track down who to direct packaging complaints to as I’m sure this deception is illegal.

Hah!
I guess I’m a bit late noticing this, although it is my family who drinks the stuff more often than I do. I was bewildered last month when I noticed the “Chocolate Dairy Beverage” label advertised in a grocery flyer.

May I also say $2.99!?!? Cheapest ever around London/Sarnia On area is $3.99!!!

My question is – if it isn’t classified as “milk”, is the price lower than a real milk product?

I still haven’t received a reply yet, but I’ve been much more careful. At any restaurant we order chocolate milk, I ask to see the packaging to ensure it is chocolate milk and not Dairy Beverage. If it turns out to be Dairy beverage, I just change my order to real milk.

Just noticed this today while shopping in the dairy aisle at Giant Tiger in Ottawa, and I too was really intrigued at what could be in those cartons that would reclassify the product from milk to ‘dairy beverage.’

I’m really disappointed you haven’t got a reply from Beatrice/Parmalat on this yet that just comes clean with a full explanation.

The cynic in me thinks that you’ll get one soon after they successfully lobby the government to loosen the regulations on what can be called ‘milk’, at which point they will be happy to tell us all something like “We listened to your concerns and are happy to tell you that Beatrice quality chocolate milk is back! Beatrice, a name you’ve trusted since you were an illiterate and unknowing consumer…”

Surely this is an opportunity for another producer to market a real chocolate milk product to real milk enthusiasts. Or would that require actual competition in the dairy market in Ontario?

Very witty and well written. Thanks for the late-nite laughs. While food shopping early today, this very same thing was pointed out to me. However, it was in passing and I didn’t really have a chance to think about it until getting home later. Maybe it was hearing it for a second time that finally caught my interest and started to google as to why Beatrice/Parmalat would have changed from Chocolate Milk to Dairy Beverage. As a researcher and lover of mysteries, my curiousity brought me to your blog first.

While researching for another few minutes, I stumbled into the ingredients of this fascinating new beverage drink. It contains two key ingredients, better known as a ‘milk replacer’. It is fact not milk at all and Parmalat has engineered it’s own brand. I would encourage everyone to read the following articles and quickly spread the word to have this product removed.

I’m glad I’m not the only one concerned about this. If you notice on the nutrition information, the amount of protein has decreased quite abit too. There used to be 8.5 grams of protein per serving. Now there is 6 grams. Obviously, something has changed. This must be due to the milk ‘replacement’. Too bad they’re messing with such a good thing.

Super Sleuth commented above and figured it out. Please click on the links they provided (2 comments above). Here is an excerpt from one of the links:

“Technical literature was submitted with your letter. “Protelac 230″, in powder form, is composed of between 35 to 45 percent lactose, between 33 and 43 percent nonfat dry milk, between 10 and 20 percent canola oil, between 2 and 8 percent sodium caseinate, and less than 2 percent each of sodium phosphate and flavor. It is to be used as an ingredient in the manufacture of instant, hot beverage mixes, to give a milky flavor and a creamy texture, or in vending machine applications, as a foaming agent. Protelac 230 is manufactured in Canada from ingredients that are products of Canada. The exception is the sodium caseinate which is a product of New Zealand.”

So it seems that what you are drinking is man made Protelac 230. I wouldn’t trust the stuff as far as you could throw it. I would advise supporting Organic institutions that take a little more pride in their product.

I too, am just flabbergasted at all this… especially since Beatrice just started making new chocolate milk with “ADDED BUTTER MILK”! Have you seen or tried it? It’s the best chocolate milk ever made by Beatrice.

I too have been noticing the “Dairy Beverage” marlarky, and I finally, in an effort to get to the bottom of things decided to purchase a 500ml carton of it and try it.

I LOVE Chocolate milk, and I’m sure that I’ve consumed several hundred litres over my lifetime. This was NOT chocolate milk. It tasted like soy water with a brown crayon dipped in it. And then I read all of the extra shiz that they put in it, compared to what is in an actual carton of Chocolate milk.

Thanks for all the information. I was in a grocery store yesterday and asked the manager where he had his chocolate milk. Ofcourse I had looked there already and only found choclate beverage. We both went to the dairy section, and he reassured me they had chocolate milk. When we arrived I pointed out to him this was chocolate beverage and not milk. He did not know this and thought because it came from beatrice it must be milk. He just looks at the bottom line and how he can make the most money. I think consumers should be aware and refuse to buy a product like that.

I have taken the below from the Dairy Farmers of Ontario website they are advertsing that dairy beverages are actually edible oil based…..mmmm tasty!

Chocolate Drinks and Beverages Are Not Chocolate Milk!
Various concoctions of chocolate drinks and beverages containing some milk and other dairy ingredients have been introduced on the market by some dairy processors over the past two years. These drinks and beverages resemble chocolate milk but consumers need to make sure they are not fooled. These drinks contain other ingredients such as modified milk ingredients and/or whey products and that means they are not real chocolate milk.

In Ontario and most other provinces, the only permitted ingredients in chocolate milk other than milk are flavouring, salt, stabilizers, sweeteners, food colouring and vitamins A and D, resulting in a product that is 90% or more milk. The milk content of most chocolate drinks and beverages is considerably less than this and can be as low as 51%.

yuck!!!!!!!!!!how dare the processors try to pull this off, do they really think that consumers cannot taste the difference, who is going to suffer from this? the dairy farmer is. How can we promote the health benefits of milk when the PROCESSORS replace the real thing with waxy tasting, brown coloured water they like to call chocolate beverage tsk tsk tsk Beatrice and Parmalat shame on you for trying to save money and ruin the Dairy Farmers reputation Shame shame shame how do you sleep at night

I am happy i found this site, i have been pissed off for a few months about this chocolate dairy beverage. The metro flyer last week said sale on chocolate milk, but in store allll of it was chocolate dairy beverage, frigin false advertising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well i must say i was guite outraged myself…. until i bought a 250 ml of beatrice chocolate partly skimed milk!!!! i couldnt believe it!! i live right across the street from metro and go there often, my boyfriend(who is an employee) pointed that whole dairy beverage thing out to me but it was on a 1L… i’vecome to notice that every 250 ml of chocolate milk is infact still called chocolate milk!! soo to all of u c milk lovers i suggest getting the smaller cartins:):) i no if ur a serious c milk lover u may have to buy a lot of cartins but other than that….happy drinking to all….

I am usually very observant but not this time. I just found out about the chocolate milk beverage thing. I do not taste or smell and I of course would not notice the difference in taste. I always drink chocolate milk or orange juice only. Now what can I do. I will certainly look into this issue. I thought I would drink this products because, for one the milk would be good for my bones and two, the vitamin C in orange juice. Ha Ha to me. I can only hope I find a better product the chocolate milk beverage. Thank you all for trying to make a difference in this product. I will do the same.

a local dairy farmer informed me that they are shipping this milk, covertly from accross the border, as it is less expensive than local milk.
the milk ingrediants come from the US, where this somaatotropin is allowed.
monsanto failed to get their product approved here in Canada as the farmers fought it, but now they sneak it across the border.

I think all of us that are real chocolate milk lovers should warn everyone they see, in a store or supermarket, with a carton of this crap in their buggy. Especially when they have thier 99 cent a litre sale. Sobys, Loblaws, Metro, No Frills, Price Chopper, Food Basics, etc. Let’s boycott their chocolate dairy beverage and make sure the store owner knows it. And let everyone you know see this site. Thanks.

I have read your blogs on the Beatrice Chocolate Milk Beverage and as a former dairy sales representative I too was unaware that Beatrice had such a product. If you are living in Canada and are looking for chocolate milk and not a chocolate milk beverage then you can buy Neilson in Ontario, Dairyland in Western Canada, Baxter in Eastern Canada and Nutrilait in Quebec. Neilson products are sold at major retailers such as Walmart, Loblaws stores (Fortinos, RCSS, No Frills).

Okay, so I am now entering my concern years after this started, but here goes anyway. The message above mentions Dairyland in Western Canada. Recently a number of articles have encouraged athletes to drink chocolate milk instead of electrolyte products (e.g. Gatorade) if they need to hydrate.

So I was in Timmies a few days ago and since I do not drink soda pop of any kind due to its high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or aspartame, I decided to have a 473 mL carton of Dairlyand Chocolate Partly Skimmed Milk. Unfortunately I bought it before reading the ingredients. This would not have happened in my local grocery store!

I don’t know if i have all the facts straight i’ll share what i can recall. i attained this info from a co-worker of my husband. He used to work for a daiy supplier. Apparently, the chocolate dairy beverage is made of a mixture of different ingredients that may have been returned back to the supplier/manufacturer for whatever reason, even if it was spoiled. They re-pasturize the milk, add all the flavourings/additional ingredients and re-market it as a ‘dairy beverage’. Not sure how much truth there is to this claim, but makes me think twice about buying a ‘chocolate dairy beverage’ again!

I am glad I found your blog! As a dairy farmer we are batteling with the milk processing companies over this issue right now just as we had to do over Ice Cream and Frozen Dessert a couple years ago. It is all about them saving money! “The standard industry formula for chocolate milk is: 93% milk, 6.3% sugar, 0.65% cocoa powder and 0.05% carrageenan” (the milk producer magazine) (The Carrageenan helps keep the chocolate suspended in the milk)However please make note “THERE ARE NO STANDARDS FOR CHOCOLATE “DAIRY BEVERAGE” says Peter Gould, Dairy Farmers of Ontario” I know from personal experiance that when i complain at the stores about the Dairy Beverage and also about the advertising of Chocolate Milk when really it is Dairy Beverage, I am told that the supplier has told them there is no difference and I have to make them aware that there is. Neilson’s and Gay Lea milk are real some of the small containers ie for school distribution in Sealtest are milk. It has been recommended to me that we complain to store managers that we do not want this product but want the real chocolate milk. Make them aware that they can change suppliers and Neilsons will supply them with the proper product. Also if you have bought Chocolate Beverage by accident return it to the store for a refund and complain! The only way we can make them go back to the origional is to keep complaining and pass the word. Don’t buy it and tell the store managers why! If you buy it by mistake return it. Finally educate the store employees that their information that it is the same product is false. (can be done by comparing a label to real chocolate milk. If it doesn’t list Milk as the first ingredient its not Milk! (Note: Modified milk ingredients is not milk it is a byproduct) Any questions contact Dairy Farmers of Ontario or Canada!

Found this posting on the Dairy Farmers of Ontario website:
Chocolate Drinks and Beverages Are Not Chocolate Milk!

Various concoctions of chocolate drinks and beverages containing some milk and other dairy ingredients have been introduced on the market by some dairy processors over the past two years. These drinks and beverages resemble chocolate milk but consumers need to make sure they are not fooled. These drinks contain other ingredients such as modified milk ingredients and/or whey products and that means they are not real chocolate milk.

In Ontario and most other provinces, the only permitted ingredients in chocolate milk other than milk are flavouring, salt, stabilizers, sweeteners, food colouring and vitamins A and D, resulting in a product that is 90 per cent or more milk. The milk content of most chocolate drinks and beverages is considerably less than this and can be as low as 51 per cent.

If you didn’t get real chocolate milk, take it back to the store.

If you wanted real chocolate milk and mistakenly bought a dairy drink or dairy beverage, you are within your rights to return the product to the store and request a refund.

In addition, if consumers find they have products labelled chocolate drink or chocolate beverage and want to know what might be in it, please contact the appropriate supplier.

This whole chocolate milk/milk beverage ordeal is the whole reason I switched to using Nestle Quik Syrup in my usual 1% milk instead. I also heard that once you put chocolate into milk it quickly begins turning the milk bad, whether or not this is true, I’m not 100% positive but Quik just seems like the best option these days.

Outrage!! Can’t believe the crap they try to put into our bodies. I shop at Costco and found Organic Chocolate Milk (lowfat) All Natural nothing artificial. This is a Kirkland product and is all I will drink now (when it comes to Chocolate Milk)

I too am enraged about the production of this inferior chocolate product. I am a dairy farmer and pride myself on the quality of Canadian milk. We go trough strenuous testing and quality controls to deliver a safe and nutritious product. The amount of product(modified milk ingredients) coming in from other counties is increasing. Processors see this as a cheap way to substitute milk for these inferior products while continuing to price them comparable to milk.These chocolate drinks are a prime example, along with ice cream and cheese. Government legislation allows for a certain percentage of dairy products allowed into our country, as long as they are not more than 50%. Modified milk ingredients like butter oil blends are 51% sugar, thus being able to be imported. It is these cheaper products that are substituted for the real thing, in ice cream(a.k.a. frozen dessert),cheese and now chocolate milk(a.k.a.chocolate drink or chocolate beverage).This past weekend I discovered that Sobeys had only chocolate drink on their shelves and that the popular restaurant chain, Kelseys was also serving the beverage. The manager was surprised by the revelation and was angry at the fact that the cartons looked almost identical. Boston pizza , by the way does serve chocolate milk.Although they were also naive of the misrepresentation. Point blank, tell your local supermarket,restaurant and friends you are mad and frustrated. Educate as many as you can. The consumer does not deserve to be misled. We as dairy farmers will do our best.

I must admit that I have good understanding of topice that being discuss most of the time online, but what really amaze me is the content of you site is full of other informations that I
haven’t cover before. I must take this time to thank you for taking the time for sharing your ideas with everyone. Keep up the good work. Will be back to read again from your postings>

During my nightshift I came in the habit of stopping at a local Rabba in Toronto for a litre of Sealtest chocolat milk. $1.99 was the best price around for what I thought was chocolate milk. When chocolate MILK was still widely available, my only search criteria is that it had to be made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup (sugar/glucose/fructose in Canada), this knocked Neilsons and Beatrice out. Sealtest was the only one using sugar. I became so comfy in knowing that I could trust Sealtest to make the best product, that I failed to notice (as they had probably hoped) that they changed the milk to “beverage”. I will buy no more!! I have now switched to organic chocolate milk in the glass bottles, available at Rabba and Whole Foods. Unfortunately $3.99 a litre, but the taste is worth it and my body appreciates less modified crap and chemicals coming in.

I’d hardly consider you a chocolate milk connoisseur drinking that shit. I don’t even consider myself a connoisseur and I drink 2% organic chocolate milk with organic dark baker’s chocolate, in a glass bottle, I might add.

Chocolate milk is usually 3 bucks on the shelf for a liter. 2% organic chocolate milk is $4 after the 2 dollar bottle refund. It’s a no-brainer to go for the organic stuff if you’re a serious chocolate milk drinker.

Only other thing I’ll say is, if it tastes like chocolate Easter eggs, you’re not getting the right stuff… my local grocery store apparently just switched over from the previous stuff to their own brand and now it tastes like cheap chocolate eggs and I’m not stoked. I need to fix that.

Neilson is truly the best….I’ve heard first hand they use high quality coca powder and have 1.1 to 0.9 butter fat. Beatrice might use other and I find it watery witch leads me to think there butterfat might be way lower,,,”ripping us off”

It seems like Scotsburn (now owned by Saputo) in Newfoundland markets their 1% chocolate milk beverage as “Chocolate Milk”. The list of ingredients are the same as the “Chocolate Milk Beverage” this article was originally written about.

Hi so lately there’s a recall on Beatrice chocolate milk because it had hand sanitizer in it.
Before I read this I bought a litre of chocolate milk and got home poured a glass there was a huge spider in it.
Called parmalat they asked me to ship it in a plastic baggie and purolator would pick it up. They did and awe days later called they were so rude and didn’t even say sorry. I was floored that after hand sanitizer was found that they would let huge spiders get in milk. I scared to drink their products and found they make so many brands it has been upsetting and there is only one number to call on all products and you talk to one ignorant women. You can’t bypass her. What with parmlat I searched for another way to get can’t find anything